Manchester United boss Louis Van Gaal has defended under-fire record signing Angel Di Maria, after a series of ineffectual performances from the Argentine midfielder.

A tough month or two for Angel Di Maria reached some sort of nadir this weekend. The reported comments of Charly Rexach, the former Barcelona coach and recently appointed member of the club's new technical committee, that the Argentina midfielder had been "too ugly" for Real Madrid accompanied another flat performance for his new club Manchester United against Sunderland. Di Maria's quiet Saturday afternoon saw him hooked in favour of Adnan Januzaj at the interval, giving him some extra time to stew...